VW chooses Mobileye, DoorDash flying. Fisker crashing and Minneapolis

#movingpeople is a part of Mobility Business  - consultancy dedicated to "All Things Mobility". This week highlighting the (anti-bias) Strategy Review.

Ride-Hailing & Taxi, Buses & DRT  🚙🚐

Lyft strengthens its advertising arm, introducing video ads across the US, hiring a new CMO, and adding Oracle and Nielsen as vendors for accurate measurement and ad-targeting. According to Lyft, riders check the app nine times whilst on a ride, and this poses a great revenue opportunity for the company. At the latest investor meeting the company avoided answering directly about ad revenue, but inferring from Uber’s numbers this could be a >$150M annual revenue opportunity for Lyft. And Risher - I’m waiting for you in London (in 3rd paragraph).  

Freenow adds car station-based rental across all nine nine European markets, working with the likes of Hertz, Europecar and Avis. The solution is made possible by Meili’s in-app car rental solution. 

The Minneapolis story is stepping out from the “gig-economy” section down below and into prime time. In previous episodes, Minneapolis councillors (legislative branch) voted to increase gig-economy (TNC) drivers wage, above what Uber & Lyft (or TNCs) are willing to accept and whilst overruling a veto that was imposed on them by the executive branch. TNCs threaten to leave on May 1st, which is the date the ordinance goes into effect. With a month to go, there is already work on a compromise. Meanwhile, players such as Wridz and Empower, both using a model in which drivers keep 100% of fare and pay network subscription, and local taxi players, are warming up on the sidelines. To be continued. In any case, this ordinance does not affect delivery workers, i.e. UberEats will remain in Minneapolis regardless. 

Yango is switching its Israeli operations to a local franchise model, the franchisee being a large taxi company owner. The switch to franchise model, in Israel and other countries, is the result of the “breakup” of Yandex from Russia. Also Yango Israel launches a new customer club - encompassing Yango taxi & food delivery, and Wind scooters.  

SkedGo now covers 100% of France - and by looking at this map, plenty of Europe. France doesn't have a single transport data feed, so SkedGo needed to integrate 130 different data providers. This work also opens up an opportunity for a wider, European, MaaS service. 

Didi reported a Q4 profit. Revenue was ±$6.83 billion, net income ±$113.4M, margin of 1.7%. And Didi files to open an office in Amsterdam. Bolt launches reduced-mobility taxi service in Brussels. In Singapore, Grab introduces crypto currency payments with five leading coins. Uber is expanding across the UK, targeting areas of taxi shortages. InDrive in Pakistan: 6.5 million app downloads. 20 cities served via ride-hailing, 200 cities with intercity solution. In December 2023, InDrive had over 300,000 orders for intercity rides. The company is introducing carpooling in the country and exploring parcel delivery. 

Via launches in Monaco - through CityMapper - which predates the Via service. Albuquerque launches microtransit pilot programme with Spare. The Routing Company moved over 1 million riders. 

Wayla is a startup focused on asset-based van-pooling in Italy - which just won 1st place in the TPL segment at IoMOBILITY Awards. Click the link for the complete list of finalists and winners, other players on the list include BusForFun, Via, SkedGo, Shotl and Geotab (among others).  

Car Sharing/renting 🚗

Ox Drive is a Latvian all-EV free-floating car-sharing startup. Ox has 150 Tesla vehicles, is operationally profitable, and puts an emphasis on costs by initiatives such as self-insurance, setting-up its own workshop and charging hubs, and utilising the Tesla connected car capabilities. With the scale and vehicle uniqueness Ox Drive has - it makes sense. The company is raising a pre-Series A right now so feel free to ping Juhan. 

Kyte, rental car delivered to you on-demand, closes a $250M debt raise, to grow its rental fleet. Zoomcar partners with EaseMyTrip, one of India's largest online travel platforms, to offer vehicles on the EaseMyTrip platform. Arval launches corporate car sharing in Romania. 

I love meeting new people, learning about innovation and exchanging opinions. Want to get-to-know and talk mobility? Let’s set up a half-hour coffee chat. 

Micromobility 🚲🛴

Fluctuo released their 2023 Shared Mobility Report - and as usual - super interesting. Europe has 930K vehicles (7% increase YoY) which were used for 600M trips (+10%) resulting in end user revenue of €2.3 billion (+18%).

Looking at each category individually, cars saw the largest increase in ridership, 39% increase YoY; followed by bikes 20% and scooters 3% - those two categories being much more mature than car sharing. Mopeds usage is declining, minus 28% YoY. For much more. 

SG bikes leaves Singapore bike-sharing market, transfers user credits to competitor Anywheel. This leaves Anywheel is the #1 player in Singapore with some 30,000 vehicles, competing with HelloRide with 10,000. Veo grows in Syracuse from 150 to 1,000 vehicles in three years. 

Delivery 🍽🧺

DoorDash begins air deliveries with Wing (and Wendy’s). The pilot takes place in a 2.5 miles radius from here, Virginia. DoorDash has a similar pilot with Wing in Australia. Wing has similar partnerships in the US with Walmart and Walgreens. 

DoorDash partners with Sally Beauty and with MAC Cosmetics, entering the beauty industry. DoorDash partners with Giant Eagle, the 36th largest US grocer. Trials have been going on since 2022. 

Is Getir nearer to acquire Flink? 

Hope you enjoy reading #movingpeople. If you do, please share it with others so that they benefit from it too. Weekly suggestion: send me a DM and I’ll fax you a printed copy which you can put next to the office’s water cooler. 

Autonomous & remote-driving 🤖℡

Volkswagen partners with Mobileye on autonomous driving, up to L4. Mobileye will develop and supply software, hardware components and digital maps for the self-driving ID. Buzz AD. This deal is applicable also to the Audi, Bentley, Lamborghini and Porsche brands. 

Ush partners with Vay to launch remotely controlled vehicles in Belgium. Ush is the autonomous mobility provider within D'Ieteren, a Belgium mobility conglomerate. Expect first teleoperated cars this year. 

TIER IV, autonomous software, partners with the Australian National Transport Research Organisation (NTRO), to research autonomous solutions fit for Australia. WeRide to co-develop L4 autonomous driving with Lenovo Vehicle Computing. 

Flying cars 🚁

TNMT’s AAM Readiness Radar update -  the funding landscape: after a massive $7.7 billion investment across 121 AAM deals in 2021, 2023 saw “only” $1.3 billion across 46 deals. Yes, the market as a whole has changed, and the way investors look at mobility investment has changed too, but in the eVTOL space it's further complicated because of the billions of $s required to cross the line - i.e. to be able to fully certify a flying vehicle. Continue reading. 

Oh, and some are saying eVTOLs are going to collapse anyway.

EHang starts selling its EH216-S model on Taobao, an online shopping site, for 2.39 million yuan, or roughly $332,000. EHang established its first UAM centre in Tsukuba, Japan. Developed in partnership by AirX, in collaboration with Tsukuba Airlines, the centre has a hangar fit for 25 vehicles and a takeoff/landing field. EHang completes pilotless EH216-S debut flight in Latin America. The flight was conducted in Costa Rica, in partnership with Globalvia, vertiport management, and Guanacaste Airport. 

Analysis of Archer’s ownership. Stellantis leads with 13%; Adam Goldstein, CEO,  owns 11% ; ARK Investment Management LLC holds circa 9.3%. 

Joby getting ready to deliver 2 more eVTOLs to the US Air Force. This is out of the nine that were signed on.  

The UK publishes its “Future of Flight Action Plan”, with the aim of having flights by 2026, drone deliveries by 2027 and autonomous flying by 2030. 

List of NASA partnerships in the advanced air mobility space. 

OEMs 🛺⚡️

Fisker’s investment talks with Nissan have terminated and the company saw its trading suspended by NYSE for “abnormally low” price levels. This puts the very existence of Fisker under question. Earlier in the week Fisker paused production to save on funds, as it must raise to continue operating. The company plans to raise $150M by selling convertible note, but will need more to survive for long. 

Lucid Motors raises another $1 billion from Saudi Arabia. The Saudi government now owns more than 60% of the company. 

Lunaz Group, EV bin lorries and cars, goes into administration. 

Kate, microcar, raises €10M. Funds will be used to open a new factory and develop the K! Platform. The company targets production of 40-50K vehicles a year by 2030. 

Citroën signed with BluSmart to sell up to 4,000 ë-C3s compact SUV to the company, in the coming year. Rivian adopts the Tesla supercharging NACS standard. 

Gig economy 💰

Rest of World (highly recommended!) talked to 104 ride-hail drivers - to find out how and where they rest. Bottom line: resting isn’t easy. Read here. 

Pizza drivers employees who make minimum wage are entitled to 100% reimbursement of the costs of their own vehicles, a US local court finds. This is not the only legal battle in the US on this matter. 

In other news 📰

Wonder raises $700M, on way to building the super app for mealtime. Funds will be used to expand physical retail locations, with plans to grow from the current base of 11 locations to 35 by the end of 2024 and 90 by the end of 2025; to continue culinary innovation; and invest in proprietary technology to drive operational efficiencies

Candela raises €24.5M to solve sea commute with 'flying' boats. 

Dronamics, Bulgarian drone cargo airline, received a €10M investment from the European Innovation Council. 

Pelican Mobility raises €4M to optimise fleet operations with electric vehicles. What makes Pelican unique is the ability to take into account not only the operating needs, but also the capital expenditures associated with the transition to EVs. 

Fixico, digital repair management platform, expands partnership with Europcar. The expansion will see more than 300 workshops in Germany connected to Fixico’s platform. 

Thank you for reading #movingpeople. I’m always happy to get-to-know over a coffee chat (Calendly set-up).